the predeceſſor. Nay, in a grant to a biſhop, or other ſole ſpiritual corporation, in frankalmoign, the word "frankalmoign" ſupplies the place of both "heirs" and "ſucceſſors," ex vi termini; and in all theſe caſes a fee-ſimple veſts in ſuch ſole corporation. But, in a grant of lands to a corporation aggregate, the word "ſucceſſors" is not neceſſary, though uſually inſerted: for, albeit ſuch ſimple grant be ſtrictly only an eſtate for life, yet, as that corporation never dies, ſuch eſtate for life is perpetual, or equivalent to a fee-ſimple, and therefore the law allows it to be one[1]. Laſtly, in the caſe of the king, a fee-ſimple will veſt in him, without the words "heirs" or "ſucceſſors" in the grant; partly from prerogative royal, and partly from a reaſon ſimilar to the laſt, becauſe the king in judgment of law never dies[2]. But the general rule is, that the word "heirs" is neceſſary to create an eſtate of inheritance.
II. We are next to conſider limited fees, or ſuch eſtates of inheritance as are clogged and confined with conditions, or qualifications, of any ſort. And theſe we may divide into two ſorts: 1. Qualified, or baſe fees; and 2. Fees conditional, ſo called at the common law; and afterwards fees-tail, in conſequence of the ſtatute de donis.
1. A base, or qualified, fee is ſuch a one as has a qualification ſubjoined thereto, and which muſt be determined whenever the qualification annexed to it is at an end. As, in the caſe of a grant to A and his heirs, tenants of the manor of Dale; in this inſtance, whenever the heirs of A ceaſe to be tenants of that manor, the grant is intirely defeated. So, when Henry VI granted to John Talbot, lord of the manor of Kingſton-Liſle in Berks, that he and his heirs, lords of the ſaid manor, ſhould be peers of the realm, by the title of barons of Liſle; here John Talbot had a baſe or qualified fee in that dignity[3]; and the inſtant he or his heirs quitted the ſeignory of this manor, the dignity was at an
